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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 23, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Good-bye to pesticides The Ontario government's decision to introduce a province-wide ban on the sale and cosmetic use of pesticides is a welcome announcement. On Monday, Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal Party announced it would keep an election promise to introduce legislation making Ontario's pesticide rules among the toughest in North America. Oakville's pesticide ban took effect on Jan. 1. The penalty for doing otherwise is pretty stiff with a first-time offence earning the offender a fine that could run as high as $5,000 while the maximum fine for a second offence could reach $10,000. Corporations that violate the bylaw have more to lose with their maximum fine for a first offence reaching as high as $50,000 while fines for subsequent offences could be as much as $100,000 each. A province-wide ban -- which isn't expected to come into effect until the spring of 2009 -- would supercede all existing municipal bylaws, making the rules the same throughout Ontario. The pesticide ban would not affect the farming or forestry industries and golf courses would still be able to apply pesticides with some limitations to minimize environmental impact. Pesticides will also still be used for health and safety, such as controlling mosquitoes, which can carry diseases like West Nile virus. "Many municipalities have already shown leadership in banning or restricting cosmetic-use pesticides. We're extending that protection to all families wherever they live," said Ontario's Environment Minister John Gerretsen. Québec is currently the only Canadian province with a pesticide ban in place. According to the provincial government, studies by public health experts are showing growing evidence of the potential health risk of pesticides, particularly for children. Both the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the Canadian Cancer Society have been calling for a ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides as a prudent measure to protect family health. According to the province, more than 44 per cent of Ontarians already live in a municipality where the cosmetic use of pesticides is banned. The province-wide ban will ensure that all Ontario residents can live in a pesticide-free community. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR French Immersion demand should not force kids out of schools As a parent of two children who currently attend Pilgrim Wood Public School, I am mad. There is currently a flood of students who are attending a French immersion school in a non-mandated optional program. Their current facilities cannot handle this flood of new students. As a result of this influx and an acknowledged lack of planning on behalf of our board, we are now faced with our children not attending school in their own neighbourhood. Where a child currently lives right next to the school property which he attends, the future will be that that same child will have to be bussed to another area to attend an English-speaking school. We as parents are to encourage diversity, we are to encourage physical activity, we are not to introduce tyranny by special interest groups, and yes, that is the label here. The attitude that requires these students attend an allFrench school to the exclusion and displacement of others smacks me as a three-yearold not wanting to share his toys. The options presented to the parents of the children who currently attend the schools affected were biased towards the final goal of having an all-French school. This is all because the parents, who have their children enrolled in a non-mandated, optional program, are not willing to allow their kids to attend a dual-track school (French immersion in an English school). The ideal solution would be for each school to offer an optional French immersion program. In this manner, we live up to the ideals that Canada stands for as a nation. We would have children staying within their neighbourhoods, the need for bussing and the associated costs and environmental impact that that would incur would diminish, if not disappear. The children in the schools would benefit from social interaction. The community would be united in its never-ending quest for better education for their children instead of being divided as it currently is. Dare I even ask, what happens when these children reach high school? ANDREW MCFARLAND Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com Guest column misleading Re: Terence Young's guest column, Oakville Beaver, April 19: As a teacher in Oakville who actively supports social justice with the St. Thomas Aquinas Peace and Justice Club, I am concerned that Mr. Young's column misrepresents the standards in which most Afghan women still live. While there have been some improvements in the north, the See No page 7 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.